The Northern Mining Landscape:Type,Transformation,Reuse Text
dam capacity. On the other hand, the waste water in the pond is refining by biological management. So, we see the clean water in pond today.
After a series of study about the arctic mining, I really interested in the mining landscape of the north. Most of them are huge and desolate today. But in the future, I think the mining landscape is not only the waste of mining, but also the challenge to be reused for the transforming urban.
Because the underground exploite of the ore body, some parts of the ground surface have already undermined. They are going down as a shape of small holes. In the future, the series of small holes will connected together and come into being a huge subside hole. This situation is very dangerous for the living people. So, the Kiruna will be removed in the coming decade.
The plan to research this topic based on three questions: 1. What is the mining landscape in the north? 2. How are they transforming? 3. What is the sustainable future of them? 1. What is the mining landscape in the north? This is the beginning of my study, I focused on the 11 main mining area of the arctic area. They developed by different minerals, companies and countries. But I found the similar type of the landscape from the maps. Most of them include the open-pit mining holes, the waste rock dumps and the process tailing ponds. Some of them aslo include undermined ground. Then, I found and zoomed out two typical mining area ---- Kiruna and Kirkenes mining. I can see all of the types of mining landscape at these area, Waste Rock Dumps, Tailing and Process Water Ponds, Waste Tailing Pile, Undermined ground and Open-pit Holes. I can see many beautiful details of them, some of them has an organic form, some of them has different colors and some of them has exquisite surface. 2. How are they transfroming? In Kiruna, the largest by-product generated by LKAB’s operation is waste rock from ore processing. They located the waste rock on the surface of ground and developed the dump layer by layer. Today, some of the dumps in Kiruna mining area has ended to grow and covered by natural plants. This is the normal future of the growing waste rock dumps. But we must know that the waste rock contains residues from undetonated explosives, which is bad for the earth and air quality. So, the company was landfilled some of them. But the company produced more than 15000 ktonnes waste rock in 2010, Most of them could be located on the ground. The tailing and process water ponds is another typical mining landscape. Company built dams on the ground to regulations on the waste. Then the waste water and tailing were dropped into the pond. With the waste volume growing, the company needs to increase the capacity in the form of reserve
The open-pit hole is the most obvious mark of mining. In Kirkenes mining area, there is a series huge holes located on the wild. They are the result of the bench mining. Bench mining entails the cutting away of level after level. In Gruvberget the thickness of each level, or bench, is 15 metres. The ore is first extracted at one level and then moves down step by 15-metre step to extract the ore from the underlying levels. The seam lies between the two levels. Vertical holes are drilled from above, the holes are charged and the ore is blasted free and extracted at the lower level. The process is repeated at the next level and so forth. In order to expose the ore and have safe roads the waste rock each side of the ore must be removed. This is done before the ore at the same level can be extracted. There are two kinds of mining landscape in the two areas, they are both the waste tailing and rock piles. All of the these mining landscape are waste of mining process or the result of mining on ground. They expanded normally, but not sustainable. 3. What is the sustainable future of them? In my speculation, the waste of mining can be reused for the city reconstruction. For example, in Kiruna, the city is removing and the mining landscape is expanding. Is there any possible to combine them as a sustainable development? Recent years, some scientists and artists have lunched some research about reuse the mining waste. They abstract innovative polymer-based materials from the waste rock and use the rock to design historical sculpture for community. These are the suggestions for the Kiruna government, they can also reuse the waste in the construction of new infrastructure and architecture. It is more valuable to make the mining landscape reused in the new city than place them in the lifeless wild. If we try to do this, several years later, the materials of new buildings in Kiruna are composed by the mining waste. These buildings will be regarded as a new mining landscape which is more sustainable than the present landscape.